AN INNOVATIVE pilot scheme is giving North Cumbria's NHS staff the opportunity to flag-up safety concerns; the scheme recently saw a faulty device removed from the trust within hours, a change that previously could have taken weeks.
The Safety Advice and Support Call was launched as a pilot scheme in April but the service will continue, within working hours, following a successful first three months.
Speaking at a meeting of North Cumbria Integrated Care directors on Wednesday, Executive Medical Director Dr Adrian Clements called the scheme "innovative."
He said: "Any member of staff, can call the number and they will speak to someone in our Safety Governance Team."
The service is currently available to staff from 9am until 5pm, Monday to Friday.
Dr Clements said: "That person can help and advise the individual about what course of action needs to be taken and what they need to do. If they think the call is really important and really urgent, they will seek advice."
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If an incident or concern is serious enough, it can then be escalated. In more than one occasion within the last three months, a call to the service has instigated a trust-wide safety call at executive level.
Dr Clements gave a recent example of the service in action, recounting a case where a fault was discovered with a piece of equipment that supports patients who are struggling with their airways.
He said: "There was a device failure, so the centre of it could fall into the airway. We had a device alert come through in the morning, by close of play, having co-ordinated that, we had all those devices removed from every delivery point across this trust."
"Not only were they all removed but we replaced them with appropriate devices."
Dr Clements said: "If we hadn't had that alert to us, it could have, in the old world, taking weeks for us to make sure that stock was removed and replaced.
"So we reacted very swiftly, trust-wide, got all the people in the room, got all the managers in the room, got the relevant clinicians in the room and we were able to implement a safety initiative alert."
Work is set to be carried out within the trust to raise awareness about the facility among staff and Dr Clements is encouraging his team to nominate the service for a national award.
It is just one of a number of initiatives taking place across the trust which are designed to give staff the confidence and security to speak-up about their concerns.
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